1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a flexible connector having a molded body of a soft resin or rubber, and more particularly to a flexible connector having means for preventing locking screws connecting the connector to a mating device from becoming loose and inadvertently removed from the connector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a connector, as shown in a partial sectional view of FIG. 1, a connector body 1 and a cable 2 connected thereto are integrally molded together with a soft resin or rubber forming the molded body 3 to prevent a connection between the cable 2 and the connector body 1 from being adversely affected by a tensile force acting upon the cable 2. Moreover, the molded body 3 is formed with a protective portion 3a at a location where the cable extends from the molded body 3, thereby preventing breaking of the cable which is likely to be bent in use.
A connector is often used in instances where it is desired to prevent inadvertent disconnection of the connector from a receptacle 4 due to a tensile force being exerted on the cable, or other instances such as to prevent stoppage of a device. In such a case, the molded body 3 is provided on both sides with mounting lugs 3b having apertures 3c for locking screws 5 as shown in FIG. 1. The locking screws 5 are screwed into female screw members 6 of the receptacle 4 in alignment with the apertures 3c of the lugs 3b to securely connect the connector to the receptacle 4. In order to facilitate the connection of the connector to the receptacle 4, in this case, each aperture 3c comprises a narrower portion 3d whose diameter is less than that of a shank of the locking screw 5 as shown in FIG. 2a, so that the narrower portion 3d holds the locking screw 5 by reason of the elasticity of the lug 3b which is made of soft resin or rubber. This eliminates the need for use of a separately prepared locking screw.
With this arrangement, however, when the locking screws 5 are tightened to clamp the lugs 3b to the female screw members 6, the lugs 3b made of the soft resin or rubber are deformed or collapsed by heads 5a of the locking screws 5, so that an operator cannot determine when to stop tightening the locking screws. Therefore, the operator tends to tighten the locking screws 5 to their extreme positions in order to avoid undertightening of the locking screws. As a result, slots 5b of the screw heads 5a are likely to be broken making it impossible to unscrew the locking screws 5; further the lugs 3b are liable to be damaged due to their twisting deformation caused by the friction between the lugs and the heads 5a of the locking screws 5 being rotated.